Green Energy

Tempe-based First Solar Inc. will build a large solar plant in the West Valley that will use a massive battery to deliver power to Arizona Public Service Co., the companies said Monday.

The project will be unique not only for the size of the battery being put to use, but for the way the plant is operated, officials said. APS recently has placed other batteries on the grid, but they are much smaller than what will come with the solar plant.

It will be about half the size of a massive battery Tesla Motors Corp. built in Australia last year, which is billed as the largest in the world.

The First Solar plant is planned to be operational in 2021 and will be build near the APS Red Hawk Power Plant on 363rd Avenue in Arlington.

The battery will be capable of delivering 50 megawatts of power, enough for 12,500 homes, for three hours. The solar panels will have a capacity of 65 megawatts, enough for about 16,250 homes, when sun is shining on the panels.

APS wanted a power plant that would deliver electricity only from 3-8 p.m., when demand on the power grid is highest in summer. Most solar panels produce the most electricity when the sun is highest in the sky around noon.

The plant will either use the power generated early in the day to charge the batteries or sell it elsewhere, delivering to APS only when demand on the grid is high.

“We had just about every technology you could think of producing during those time windows bid on this (request for proposals),” said Brad Albert, vice president of resource management for APS. “All the way from stand-alone battery storage to natural-gas fuel peaking units. This was the winning proposal.”

The ‘duck curve’ is a problem for solar

As more solar is installed on rooftops and in large power plants, utilities face a problem known as the “duck curve,” where demand on the power grid rises sharply like a duck’s neck in the late afternoon.

The duck curve gets steeper with more solar on the grid because solar displaces other power sources midday, but ceases production in the afternoon as overall electricity use spikes.

Already the abundance of solar on the power grid in the Southwest has led to negative pricing, where on certain days California utilities will pay those in neighboring states to take their surplus midday power.

Albert said APS will need more battery installations and other technology to address the duck curve.

“We told everyone in this (request for proposals) we don’t want that (midday) energy,” he said. “Sometimes it creates bigger operational problems than it solves.”

Power on the open market is more expensive during peak demand, and likewise, power from this contract will cost APS a premium. But Albert said the 15-year, fixed-price contract offers a reliable way for APS to meet peak demand. The price was not disclosed.

“Yes, it is more expensive, but it is a much more valuable product for meeting our customer needs,” he said.

First Solar has plans to build additional solar facilities in the same area near Red Hawk, spokesman Steve Krum said.

The Trump administration has put forth a proposal to Congress to sell assets of federal power companies to state and local entities, or private businesses. The proposal is part of the White House’s plan to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.

The ability to divest some power transmission assets will give federal power companies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Southwestern Power Administration, or the Western Area Power Administration, greater value, which in turn would lead to improved value for taxpayers, the plan goes.

This part of the infrastructure rebuilding plan, however, does not seem to sit well with the American Public Power Association. The public power company trade group said it was disappointed by the proposal, noting that the assets Trump wants power companies to be able to sell have been paid for by electricity customers.

One of the public power companies mentioned by the President, the Tennessee Valley Authority, issued a statement following the proposal, in which it said, “The TVA transmission assets described in the budget schedule include more than 16,000 miles of line paid for by the power customers of the Tennessee Valley over the past 85 years. The transmission system is an integral part of TVA’s power system, which has delivered power at 99.999 percent reliability for the past twenty years. TVA is also a major reliability coordinator for large sections of the U.S. power grid, helping ensure that America’s vital energy infrastructure runs safely and reliably every day.”

With construction underway on the Denver CityNOW project – a carbon-neutral smart district incorporating numerous energy innovations – Panasonic and its partners are hoping to reveal the future of smart cities. Panasonic USA vice-president for CityNOW George Karayannis outlines the company’s vision for a smart city development plan that could work anywhere.

On the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, not far from Denver International Airport, a grand experiment is underway. Panasonic, the consumer electronics company that has been making its mark on the world of tech-driven urban design, has partnered with a consortium of local partners to transform a 400-acre patch of greenfield land into a smart district.

The project, which falls under Panasonic’s wider CityNOW smart cities initiative, was first unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2016. With around two years under the project’s belt, construction is well underway, with completion planned for 2026. The project is centred on a new light rail line that connects the area to both the airport and downtown Denver.

The project has already built a solar-powered microgrid to provide energy and back-up storage for Panasonic’s new 120,000ft² technology and operations centre, which is the anchor tenant in the development and the largest component built so far.

But a lot more is planned in the coming years, as Panasonic is working with utility stakeholder Xcel and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop what Panasonic describes as the US’s first carbon-neutral district energy plan. Other key project partners include Colorado property developer LC Fulenwider, Denver International Airport and the city of Denver.

The company considers the Denver CityNOW project as a ‘living lab’ for smart technologies and a showcase for its smart city services. But how are smart energy systems supporting the goals of Denver CityNOW, and what are the challenges involved?

“Microgrids and carbon-neutral districts are not technology challenges, these are business model challenges,” says Panasonic USA vice-president for CityNOW George Karayannis.

GE has entered the grid battery big leagues after being selected to provide a 41-megawatt plant in the U.K. The deal is part of a new strategic partnership with Arenko, a British energy infrastructure developer.

The plant, due to enter operation in the second half of this year, “will integrate GE and Arenko’s advanced control technologies and will be commercially operated though Arenko’s software to digitally deploy energy and access multiple services and system needs,” according to the company.

The battery system’s reliability and performance will be underpinned and protected by GE’s long-term support, it noted.

The project was billed as “one of the largest in the U.K. and globally, with the ability to provide affordable, on-demand power to the equivalent of approximately 100,000 U.K. homes.”

Rupert Newland, Arenko Group’s chief executive, confirmed the plant would be based on lithium-ion battery technology and would deliver services to the U.K.’s National Grid.

“GE’s domain knowledge in the batteries space enables us, just like few others only, to rely upon direct duration and degradation testing of the used batteries, rather than just on the commercial provisions by the battery vendors,” he said.

Although the companies remained tight-lipped about the location and energy capacity of the plant, Arenko is known to have prequalified a 41-megawatt energy storage project in the U.K. T-4 capacity market register for 2021-2022.

The project is listed in the register as “Arenko Bloxwich” in Walsall, in England’s West Midlands.

The listing gives Bloxwich a de-rated capacity of 21.4 megawatts, which, based on the U.K. National Grid’s de-rating factors, would equate to a storage duration of one and a half hours, or 61.5 megawatt-hours.

Besides Bloxwich, four other Arenko storage projects are listed as prequalified in the T-4 capacity market register. They are the 49.9-megawatt Pensnett project and four plants in Edinburgh, totaling 59.8 megawatts, all apparently with one and a half hours of storage.

It is unclear who would supply the batteries for these plants, if they went ahead, but press materials stressed that the relationship between Arenko and GE is intended to be more than a one-off.

“As a leading owner and operator of grid scale battery systems in the U.K., we are delighted to have established this strategic alliance with GE to deliver large scale battery energy storage projects,” said Newland.

“We share the same focus and commitment to the sector and we have been very impressed by GE’s world-class technology and project delivery of energy storage systems across the globe.”

GE has been chipping away at the energy storage market for more than a decade, but has struggled to gain traction like it has in wind power.

In 2007, GE bought a British sodium-metal-chloride battery firm called Beta Research and Development, which was rebranded Durathon. However, “there was a lack of a market for energy storage at the time,” a GE insider admitted to GTM last month.

In 2015, GE mothballed the Durathon brand and started to focus on lithium-ion battery systems instead. Business is better in this area.

In October 2016, for example, GE installed a 30-megawatt, 20-megawatt-hour battery system at the Imperial Irrigation District in California.

The system was later used to black-start the district’s El Centro 44-megawatt combined-cycle gas turbine in what GE claimed was a world-first. GE said the Arenko installation would be its 19th commercial grid-scale battery project, and its largest so far.

In the meantime, though, other industrial leaders have been racing to build market share in energy storage. Siemens, for instance, recently launched Fluence, its joint venture with AES, featuring a project portfolio of almost 500 megawatts of storage deployed or awarded.

In press materials, Mirko Molinari, global commercial and marketing executive for energy storage at GE Power, said the Arenko alliance “cements two years of working together towards creating a battery storage solution which addresses the needs of a modern energy system.”

Florida Power & Light Company today unveiled a new, cutting-edge solar-plus-storage system that is believed to be the first in the country to fully integrate battery technology with a major solar power plant in a way that increases the plant’s overall energy output.

By incorporating this new technology into the FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center, a solar power plant that was built in 2016, FPL expects to increase the amount of solar energy that the plant can deliver to the electric grid by more than half a million kilowatt-hours a year.

“Every day, we work on new ways to better serve our customers with technology innovations and efficiency improvements. That’s how we continue to set the standard for advancing clean energy affordably – including building solar power plants at a lower cost than anybody. Now, with advances in battery storage technologies, we are looking at the next level,” said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL, at an event with environmental and community leaders in DeSoto County today. “By harnessing more solar energy from the same power plant, this has the potential to further reduce our fossil fuel consumption and save our customers even more money on their electric bills.”

The new system features a 4,000-kilowatt/16,000-kilowatt-hour storage capacity comprised of multiple batteries integrated into the operations of the FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center. In addition to enabling the plant to provide more solar energy to the grid, the battery system is capable of storing the energy and dispatching it to the grid at a later time.

This technology has the potential to harness millions of kilowatt-hours of solar energy a year that would normally be lost and improve the predictability of solar energy, which naturally fluctuates with the sun’s availability. Increased predictability enables FPL to more efficiently dispatch other power plants, helping save customers on fuel costs.

The FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center is one of three solar plants FPL operates in Florida’s DeSoto County – a community that boasts more solar panels than residents. In addition to the FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center, DeSoto County is home to Florida’s first solar power plant,  the 25-megawatt FPL DeSoto Next Generation Clean Energy Center, which was the largest of its kind in the nation when it was built in 2009, and the 74.5-megawatt FPL Wildflower Solar Energy Center, which entered service on Jan. 1, 2018.

FPL is in the midst of one of the largest solar expansions ever in the eastern U.S. with more than 520 megawatts – 3.5 million new solar panels – added in the last two years alone and nearly 300 megawatts more scheduled to enter service by March 1. From 2016 to 2023, FPL expects to install a total of more than 10 million solar panels. These advancements continue to improve FPL’s carbon emissions profile, which is already approximately 30 percent cleaner than the U.S. industry average.

Moreover, FPL’s eight newest solar plants combined are projected to generate more than $100 million in net savings, over and above the cost of construction, for FPL customers. Investments like these help FPL keep rates low for customers over the long term. Today, FPL’s typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill is lower than it was more than 10 years ago and approximately 25 percent lower than the latest U.S. average. (FPL rates are decreasing again on March 1.)

How the cutting-edge new system works
The new solar-plus-storage system unveiled today is the first large-scale application of “DC-coupled” batteries at a solar power plant in the U.S. It has the same advantages of other universal solar-plus-storage installations, such as the ability to store energy and dispatch it to the grid at a later time. A unique advantage of DC-coupled batteries is the ability to harness extra energy that a solar plant generates when the sun’s rays are the strongest.

During these optimal operating periods, a solar plant may generate more power than its inverters can process, resulting in some energy inevitably being lost – or “clipped” by the inverter. Unlike other batteries, a DC-coupled system can capture this extra clipped energy, thereby increasing the amount of energy the plant delivers to the grid.

The additional solar energy and the increased predictability afforded by battery storage can enable FPL to more efficiently dispatch other power plants, helping save customers on fuel costs.

For several years, FPL and other NextEra Energy companies have been researching and testing battery-storage technologies to study a variety of potential benefits ranging from grid stabilization to improved solar integration. Currently, NextEra Energy companies operate approximately 130 megawatts of batteries with more than 100 megawatt-hours of storage capacity.

In 2016, FPL commissioned several battery-storage pilot projects to test different applications under real-world operating conditions. Systems are currently being tested at Everglades National Park’s Flamingo Visitor Center, the Crandon Tennis Center on the island of Key Biscayne as well as other locations across south Florida. Learnings from these pilots are being applied to FPL’s future plans.

Under the rate agreement supported by the state’s consumer advocate and approved unanimously by the Florida Public Service Commission in 2016, FPL plans to develop 50 megawatts of battery storage over the next few years.

More information about solar in Florida and FPL’s solar investments
Florida ranks ninth in the nation for solar resource – the strength of the sun’s rays – making it a great place for solar. One of the cleanest electric utilities in the nation, FPL projects that solar will outpace coal and oil combined as a percentage of the company’s energy mix by the year 2020.

FPL has been studying and operating solar in Florida for more than three decades. In 1984, FPL commissioned its first universal solar installation, a 10-kilowatt photovoltaic facility in Miami that helped the company’s employees gain experience with the then-emerging technology. Over the years, FPL has continued to test and operate a wide variety of solar technologies. In 2016, FPL became the first company to build solar cost-effectively in Florida, leveraging its purchasing power and sites with key advantages to complete three 74.5-megawatt solar power plants projected to produce net savings for FPL customers.

FPL is the largest generator of solar energy in Florida with 10 major solar power plants and numerous other universal solar installations, totaling more than 635 megawatts of capacity, including:

FPL Horizon Solar Energy Center, Alachua and Putnam counties
FPL Coral Farms Solar Energy Center, Putnam County
FPL Indian River Solar Energy Center, Indian River County
FPL Wildflower Solar Energy Center, Desoto County
FPL Babcock Ranch Solar Energy Center, Charlotte County
FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center, DeSoto County
FPL Manatee Solar Energy Center, Manatee County
FPL Martin Next Generation Clean Energy Center (hybrid solar/natural gas), Martin County
FPL DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, DeSoto County
FPL Space Coast Next Generation Solar Energy Center, Brevard County
FPL Solar Circuit at Daytona International Speedway, Volusia County
Solar research installation at Florida International University, Miami-Dade County
Numerous FPL SolarNow arrays in local communities

Also, four more new solar power plants are on track to enter service by March 1, 2018:

FPL Barefoot Bay Solar Energy Center, Brevard County
FPL Blue Cypress Solar Energy Center, Indian River County
FPL Hammock Solar Energy Center, Hendry County
FPL Loggerhead Solar Energy Center, St. Lucie County

In addition to the above, FPL has installed small-scale solar arrays for more than 100 Florida schools and other educational facilities.

Florida Power & Light Company 
Florida Power & Light Company is the third-largest electric utility in the United States, serving approximately 5 million customer accounts or an estimated 10+ million people across nearly half of the state of Florida. FPL’s typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill is approximately 25 percent lower than the latest national average and, in 2016, was the lowest in Florida among reporting utilities for the seventh year in a row. FPL’s nationally recognized service reliability is better than 99.98 percent, and its highly fuel-efficient power plant fleet is one of the cleanest among all utilities nationwide. The company received the top ranking in the southern U.S. among large electric providers, according to the J.D. Power 2016 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction StudySM, and was recognized in 2016 as one of the most trusted U.S. electric utilities by Market Strategies International. A leading Florida employer with approximately 8,900 employees, FPL is a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Florida-based NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE), a clean energy company widely recognized for its efforts in sustainability, ethics and diversity, and has been ranked No. 1 in the electric and gas utilities industry in Fortune’s 2017 list of “World’s Most Admired Companies.” NextEra Energy is also the parent company of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun.

On Feb. 4, the government of South Australia announced plans to build the world’s largest virtual power plant by equipping 50,000 individual households with solar panels and a Tesla Powerwall 2 battery system for free.

Each household will be responsible to pay for its energy consumption and will be individually metered. “Any excess energy generated by the system will be automatically dispatched to the grid,” according to the government. “This dispatched energy will be centrally controlled to meet the needs of the grid, providing additional energy to the rest of the state, when it is required.”

It is expected that the power plant will lower each participating household’s energy bills by 30 percent and will generate 250 megawatt to 650 megawatt-per-hour of electricity. The four-year project commenced with a free trial for 1,100 public housing units that have been outfitted with a 5-kilowatt solar panel system and a 13.5-kilowatt-per-hour Tesla Powerwall 2 battery.

Researchers at Washington State University have more efficiently generated hydrogen from water with a technique that utilizes nickel and iron to create large amounts of a catalyst required to split water molecules. This method could help make the production and storage of clean energy widespread.

Earlier this week, New York–based Morpholio released Trace, an iPhone app that offers architects essential tools for the jobsite, including dimensioning, drawing annotation, and mark-ups to scale.

What’s it like to be immersed in a space so dark that it absorbs nearly 99 percent of light? London-based Asif Khan will officially unveil the world’s first super-black building, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, at the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics. The 13,000-square-foot Hyundai Pavilion features 33-foot-tall façades that are coated entirely with Vantablack VBx 2, a derivative of a super-black, man-made chemical substance called Vantablack.

American clothing brand Ralph Lauren has designed heated parkas that utilize conductive ink technology for the 2018 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams to help combat the sub-freezing temperatures of Pyeongchang, South Korea.

New York–based developer Lotus Equity Group announced that it would be building the largest mass timber office structure in the U.S., set to be designed by the Vancouver, British Columbia, firm Michael Green Architecture. The 500,000-square-foot office building will be part of the 11.8-acre mixed-use development project Riverfront Square, in downtown Newark, N.J.